Week 7 Storytelling: Bullseye

                Hi my name is Arjuna and I am a junior in high school. I grew up in Hastinapura and I have always been intrigued by the way the kingdom works.  My father says that we are lucky to live here because it is the best place in the world. I come from a big family so chaos is something I deal with everyday in my house. I am the middle child of five boys who are always getting into trouble. Even though they can drive me crazy sometimes I still love them and would do anything for them.

                At school, all of my brothers are very popular because they are so good at sports. Yudhishthira and Bhima, the eldest twins, play football and are the star players at our school. Yudhishthira is the quarterback so at the beginning of every game the entire school chants his name. My younger brother, Nakula, is amazing at soccer and the youngest, Sahadeva, excels at basketball. Even though they are both only in middle school I think they have a lot of potential. Then there is me, I do not have the same athletic ability that my brothers have but I have a feeling I will find my sport one day but for now I will be the brains of the family and focus on school.

                Today is special because Draupadi, the kings daughter, is coming back home to Hastinapura. Draupadi is one of the most famous movie stars in our kingdom. She is also beautiful. Her hair is dark and long and her eyes are as blue as the sky. Her poster is hung on the wall of every teenage boy's room for miles. She is coming to town to celebrate her seventeenth birthday and this is not just any celebration. When King Drupada became King, he promised to marry his daughter to one of his people when she turned seventeen. He planned to have his daughter's husband chosen by a contest that was unknown to the people.

                Draupadi is amazing. She is nice, funny, and companionate. I would love to win her hand but if the contest is testing strength then I know I will fall short of my older brothers' abilities. Even though I am disappointed in my chances, I decided to go to Town Square anyways to at least cheer on the twins. To my surprise the King has announced that the contest will be in archery. I have never picked up a bow in my life but looking into Draupadi's eyes I grabbed it in my hand. My older brothers and ten other young men also grabbed a bow in hopes to win the heart of the King's daughter.

                As they bring out the targets, my heart drops because they are so far away but I won't lose hope. The twelve others and I pull back our strings and I hear the announcer counting down. I focus on the eye of the target and try to slow down my heart beat. When the announcer says, "One" I hear Draupadi yell, "Good luck" as I let go of my string. Everything is in slow motion as the thirteen arrows are in the air. When I open my eyes I see my brothers running and lifting me off the ground. I look to my target and see that I have hit dead center and almost faint. I have not only one the hand of the Princess but I have also found what I am good at.

The contest set up
Flickr

Author's Note:

I made Arjuna the center of my story because he is good at archery and I wanted that to be the base of my story. My inspiration for this story was the Disney movie Brave. In that movie, the princess is supposed to marry the best archer as well. I kept his Arjuna and the name of his four other brothers true to the original story as well as Draupadi. The setting of the story has the same name as the one in The Mahabharata but it is different because The Pandavas are not royalty in this town. Another thing that is similar to the original story is that Draupadi is considered one of the most beautiful women in the land. I strayed from the story by having Arjuna be the only one to marry Draupadi. In The Mahabharata, Draupadi is required to marry all five of The Pandavas. I decided to change up this week's story by writing it in the first person. This way we can see the inner thoughts of Arjuna instead of just hearing the story told by a narrator. I do not particularly like writing in this style so I do not know it I would do it again.


This film of The Mahabharata was made by Epified

Portfolio Introduction

My goal is to have an organized and interesting portfolio that is both pleasing to the eye and also fun to read.

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Rama's Victory
This story begins with our heroes, Rama and Lakshmana, in search of Rama's love named Sita. This story takes you on a trip of adventure and war.

Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana
Wikimedia

Ekalavya + Determination.

This is a story about an outcast named Ekalavya. He never lets anyone bring him down and he is determined to reach his goals.

Ekalavya going swimming
Wikimedia

Bullseye

This is a story about a boy named Arjuna. He uses his new found skill to win the heart of his new found love.

The contest set up
Flickr

Week 5 Storytelling: Ekalavya + Determination.

                When Ekalavya was born, his parents, Annabel and Samu, were overwhelmed with happiness for their new son. This happiness was short lived because ten minutes after birth the doctors had to take Ekalavya into surgery. When the doctor came back to the new parents, he told them that their son was going to be okay but he would have to live the rest of his life with only one leg. Annabel and Samu were just happy that Ekalavya was alive.

               Annabel and Samu raised Ekalavya just like any other child. He got no special attention from his parents for his physical handicap. In fact, he did not even think of himself as physically handicapped until he went to school. Some of his classmates made fun of him for needing a crutch and being deformed and others treated him with extra care. His teacher made him sit out during dodge ball because she thought it would put him in danger. He was very confused by his experience at school because he had never been treated like that at home or even with his cousins but at school he was an outcast.

Ekalavya going swimming
Wikimedia

                In middle school, Ekalavya met the Pandava brothers. The Pandava brothers were strong, athletic, and popular. These five brothers were the first people in school that did not treat him differently than they would anyone else and Ekalavya enjoyed their friendship. The boys would play sports or go swimming and Ekalavya felt normal again.

                When the Pandava brothers got to high school, they decided to take karate classes to make themselves more disciplined and strong. Since the brothers and Ekalavya did everything together, they invited him to class one day and Ekalavya absolutely loved it. He observed the strength and agility of the instructors was more than he had even seen. The friends took karate classes for three years, all the way up to senior year. The Pandava brothers had become almost experts in the sport but Ekalavya had to work every day to modify every move so that he could accomplish the same level of talent.

                One day the Pandava brothers decided to move to a more advanced studio. Ekalavya wanted to join his friends but was worried about the studio's competitive tryouts. He practiced during every free minute he got and on the day of the tryouts he was confident. Karate students came from all around the country to have the opportunity to be taught by the famous Drona, one of the most highly sought after karate instructors. When Ekalavya hopped into the building, he immediately got strange looks from everyone around him. He heard the laughs from the other competitors but tried to ignore them.

                After each of the five Pandava brothers had their turn on the stage, the crowd cheered and a judge came up and gave them a letter of acceptance to the elite studio. When it was Ekalavya's turn, his heart pounded but he tuned out the skeptical stares and put forth his best performance.  He felt great about his performance and he was proud of the work he had put in. The skeptical stares were replaced with expressions of shock when Drona himself came on stage to hand Ekalavya his letter of acceptance. Ekalavya had never been more proud of himself.

Author's Note:

For this week's storytelling post I decided to base it off of a character that is not a main character from the reading. I got all of the names from The Mahabharata but I changed the background of each of the characters as well as the setting of the story. My inspiration of this post was the Karate Kid because I watched that on TV the other day. In The Mahabharata, Ekalavya is an outcast due to his family's origin and he is not physically handicapped until the end when his thumb is removed but I wanted to give the story a twist so I made him an outcast by physical handicap from the beginning. I also kept true to Drona being the highly sought after teacher/instructor. Overall, In the original story Drona rejected Ekalavya but then Ekalavya trained to a statue that looked like Drona. Ekalavya became very good. He came back to Drona to show off his skills. Drona is impressed but in order to keep his image he demands Ekalavya to take off his thumb in punishment of going against his word. I completely changed Drona to make it a happier story. I went against the original story by making The Pandava brothers and Ekalavya friends from the start and my reason for this was to make the story more upbeat than the original. The Pandava brothers do not have individual names because I wanted to make them seem like a unit or a well oiled machine. I did this to take the focus off of them and keep it on Ekalavya. As for Ekalavya's parents I made up their names because I am a little confused as to who actually are Ekalavya's parents in the original story. I wanted to keep the main character's mindset always positive.


All accounts of The Mahabharata are found in The Public Domain found below

Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Storytelling for Week 3: Rama's Victory

As we last left our hero he was in search of his captured love, Sita.

In search of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana found a monkey lying injured on the ground intertwined in a thick bush of thorny vines. The two ran to his aid and helped remove him from the wicked thorns. They provided him with medicine and bandages. After they had helped him, he revealed himself to be Sugriva, A Monkey King of the Monkey Kingdom.

 He told Rama about his evil brother, Vali, who had taken over the Kingdom and left him for dead. Sugriva then told Rama and Lakshmana that if they would help him defeat his brother and regain his crown that he would grant them one favor of anything they needed.  Rama had heard of the Monkey Kingdom before, a beautiful place filled with waterfalls of glistening blue water and trees full of the sweetest fruit, but knew that none of this would aid in his search for Sita. None the less, Rama decided to help the desperate monkey.

Vali Wikimedia

Upon arriving at the palace, Sugriva masked the men in a monkey disguise in order to be able to walk through the city without causing a scene. They pretended Sugriva was their prisoner and took him to the palace where Vali lived. As soon as they saw Vali, Rama pulled out his golden bow and shot Vali before his guards could defend him. The monkey kingdom was once again in the hands of Sugriva!

Since Rama found no need for Sugriva's favor, he and Lakshmana packed up their things to go. As they were about to leave, Lakshama overheard Sugriva talking about how pleased he was with his growing army that protected the city. Lakshmana ran to Rama and told him the great news. Rama was thrilled and immediately went to the king. The king was more than happy to send his army to help Rama in his search. Rama thanked the Gods for his good Karma and went on his way.

When they found Ravana's Palace, the two brothers and their army planned an ambush. They surrounded the city and attacked. As soon as Ravana realized the war had begun, he sent his powerful brother with their army to fight Rama's monkeys. The epic war commenced and many lives were lost.

 Rama did not want to lose any more lives, so he marched to Ravana and challenged him to a duel. Since Ravana had powers beyond Rama, he knew that there was a possibility that he would die but he knew it was the only way to free Sita. As the fight progressed, Ravana delivered some bad attacks. Rama was near death when a God who was watching over him delivered a weapon from his own armory. Rama mustered up all of his strength and used his new weapon to fire a flaming arrow into Ravana's eye and through his head. The two fought for their armies with all they had but in the end Rama was victorious! He found Sita and took his queen back to his village where he was named King once again!

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Author's Note:

This post is a continuation of the story I told from Week 2 The Golden Bow. The two heroes are the same and they are still in search of Sita. The story line follows the story of Ramayana pretty well but omits some things that I didn’t like such as the controversy of the way Rama killed Vali. I wanted the hero in this story to be unblemished or almost God-like because, after all, he is an avatar of Vishnu. I also changed the scene of the brothers finding Sugriva. I gave the brothers disguises when they go through the monkey kingdom because no humans are in the monkey kingdom. I wanted to change the story line of Rama helping Sugriva twice, instead of just once, in order to justify asking for an entire army because that is a large request. I also left out the ending of the story where Sita is cast out, Lakshmana dies, and Rama becomes Vishnu again because I wanted more of a happy ending story. The names are once again true to the actual story. In order to follow the suggested topic of a descriptive setting, I added much detail into the place that the heroes found Sugriva and also the Monkey Kingdom.

All accounts of this story were from Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition